Denali, Day 1.

Our first foray into Denali National Park didn't start so well. The shuttle that was supposed to take us from our cabin to the Park never showed up, and we were getting close to the time that we needed to be there for our bus tour, so we hitched a ride with some local guy who was headed that way. Yay for helpful, friendly locals!
Once we got to the Park, we had reserved seats on one of their green shuttle buses to take us about 53 miles in to Toklat. The shuttle buses aren't the same as a tour bus- the shuttle bus lets you get off wherever you want so you can hike, and when you're ready to head back you can just flag down another green bus. The tour buses only let you get out at certain stops, and you're on the same bus all day.
Even though Toklat was only 53 miles in, it took us 4 hours to get there! We stopped whenever we saw wildlife and had a few restroom breaks. After we turned around at Toklat, Teres and I got off the bus at the Teklanika River and hiked around there for a while before walking the main road and grabbing another bus.
We saw some amazing sights today- both wildlife and geography. Unfortunately it was too cloudy to see Denali today, maybe tomorrow we'll get lucky. On the bus ride, we saw a few moose, a caribou, some Arctic ground squirrels, lots of Dall's sheep, and a grizzly! The bear was pretty far off so I couldn't get any pics :(
After being at the Park for about 10 hours, we foolishly decided to walk back home, and now we're ready for some food & drink!! More Denali tomorrow.